Читать книгу By Request Collection Part 3 - Майя Бэнкс, Robyn Donald - Страница 19

CHAPTER TWELVE

‘RAFIQ,’ she said on a broken little sob. ‘I don’t want an affair.’

He said jaggedly, ‘I cannot bear your tears. Rage at me, little cat, show me the spirit you’ve kept intact all through this. But I beg you, don’t weep.’

Lexie couldn’t control her shock. His unexpected arrival had finally tipped her over the precipice she’d been negotiating for the past weeks. She gulped as more tears clogged her throat, and then she felt the longed-for strength of his arms around her, his warmth enclosing her as he rocked her back and forth, murmuring soft, comforting words in the language she didn’t understand.

Until finally her tears slowed and she could think again.

Then he said deeply, ‘So it has been as bad for you as it has for me?’

‘I don’t know how bad it’s been for you,’ she retorted with a flash of spirit.

He tipped her chin and examined her face, a gleam of satisfaction gilding the dark green eyes. ‘Very bad,’ he said succinctly. ‘Until you left, I didn’t realise how much I was going to miss you. I hoped you were missing me just as much, but if you were, you didn’t show it.’

‘How do you know?’ she demanded, startled by his words.

He looked arrogantly sure of himself, a conqueror fully in command. ‘Surely you didn’t think I would let you go so easily?’ he asked, his brows lifting. ‘Of course I made sure you were all right.’

‘You had me watched?’ Lexie tried very hard to be outraged; it shouldn’t have been difficult, but her natural anger was softened by a treacherous glow of pleasure.

‘Checked,’ he corrected, his jaw jutting. ‘If you had been happy, if you’d showed no signs of missing me, then I would have accepted your decision.’

She tried to pull back; he held her for another second, then let her go. ‘Really?’ she said disbelievingly.

Shrugging those broad shoulders, he conceded with an enigmatic smile, ‘Not without seeing you again. Everything happened so fast between us, and then you discovered that I had used you, and naturally you were furious and hurt. And there was the possibility of a child to complicate the situation. You needed time to think, to regroup, to discover for yourself what your emotions were. But always I planned to come and ask you to marry me again.’

Lexie heard his words as though in a dream. She stared at him and said furiously, ‘Just what do you feel for me? Apart from passion?’ Colour heated her cheekbones, then faded abruptly, so that they stood out starkly beneath her hot blue eyes. ‘That’s not the best base for something as serious as marriage, but you’ve never shown any indication of feeling anything more.’

He looked at her as though she was mad, his eyes blazing above a face suddenly stark. ‘I love you,’ he said between his teeth. ‘Of course I love you—how could you not have known? I asked you to marry me, Lexie!’

‘You asked me to marry you because you found out I was a virgin,’ she retorted tensely, her heart thudding so hard she had to focus on speaking clearly. ‘And because you thought I might be pregnant!’

Her whole future depended on this. He had to be sure—as sure as she was. And she had to be sure, too, that his sister’s wretched fate hadn’t driven him into that astonishing proposal.

Because it had to be faced, she said more steadily, ‘You couldn’t bear to be associated with Gastano in anything, especially not the seduction of a virgin. And then we made love without protection.’

Appalled, she watched his hands clench at his sides. He surveyed her with menacing eyes, their glitter so intimidating she had to stop herself from taking a step backwards. After a few seconds, he dragged in a deep breath and his fists relaxed.

‘I did not seduce you,’ he rasped. ‘We made love. There is a difference. For me there was always love.’

‘I can’t believe that,’ she said desperately, wanting so much to accept what he was saying she could feel the need like a huge hunger inside her. ‘You despised me because you thought I’d been Felipe’s lover.’

‘I tried very hard to despise you,’ he corrected with a grim smile. ‘From the moment I saw you in that flirtatious orange dress, I wanted you, but even then I felt more for you than the transient lust of a man for a sexy woman.’

‘How do you know?’

He gave her another arrogant look, one mingled with frustration, then, in a gesture as brutal as it was unexpected, hammered a fist into one cupped hand. ‘I felt—doubt, confusion, anger. All those—and something else. For the first time in my life, I did not know what it was I was feeling, and the loss of control made me angry.

‘So, yes, I suspected that you were far more experienced than you were, but the woman I kidnapped did not live up to my expectations. You were warm and thoughtful; after the car crash, you insisted on finding out how the driver of the car was, and you sent her a card and flowers. She is one of my best agents, by the way. You showed no signs of interest in anything but Moraze and the horses, the people—almost everything around you but me!’

Lexie couldn’t stop her incredulous laugh. ‘You must have known—you’re an experienced man, and every time you touched me or kissed me, I lost it.’

His anger faded. He smiled, but with irony. ‘Ah, but you regained that infuriating composure very quickly. I would like to be able to tell you when love happened, how it happened, but it came so swiftly, stealing my heart before I knew it was in danger. Even after we made love the first time, I thought I was safe. Until in the sugar mill, when it seemed that Gastano held all the cards in his hands, and I knew that if I couldn’t rescue you I would die a lonely man.’

That simple statement and the tone it was delivered in—as stark and uncompromising as the stripped anguish in his eyes—almost satisfied Lexie’s desperate need to be convinced.

Yet still she couldn’t quite dare to believe him. Instead she turned and unlocked the door, saying over her shoulder, ‘You’d better come inside. It’s summer here, but it must be cold for you after Moraze.’

What would he think of her cottage? He followed her in, closing the door behind him. She stood silently, devouring him with her eyes, as he inspected the small living room with its doors opening out onto a brick terrace.

‘It looks like you,’ he said at last, then turned and smiled at her. ‘Warm and practical, yet with charm and spirit. When did you know you loved me?’

‘I knew for sure when I thought Gastano was going to kill you. That’s why I kicked out at him; I realised that life without you wouldn’t be worth living.’

Rafiq held out his hand. She took it, and his fingers closed around hers, warm, confident, strong and protective. But he didn’t take her into his arms.

Instead he said in a low, implacable voice, ‘I loathed Gastano for what he did to my sister—he stripped her of her innocence, degraded her until she believed that she was worth nothing. But I didn’t feel that I had done that to you after we made love. I felt—transported, as though this was new and happening for the first time, as though I suddenly knew why I had been born.’

She said quietly, ‘So did I.’

Although his fingers tightened around hers, he still didn’t kiss her. ‘I knew I couldn’t touch Gastano legally. I probably could have arranged his assassination, but that would have made me as bad as he was.’

‘No,’ she said jerkily.

He shrugged. ‘I felt so. Also, it would have left his organisation ripe for being taken over by someone as evil as he was. But I wanted him to pay for what he did—and I wanted to make sure no more innocents would suffer degradation at his hands. To do that, I had to get him to Moraze. I didn’t realise you were coming too, or that he intended to marry you.’

Lexie nodded, and scanned his beloved face. ‘So you lured him there.’

‘But then I decided to keep you out of circulation, hoping that would infuriate him enough to make him show his hand.’ He gave a grim smile. ‘Well, that was what I told myself. The real reason was because I couldn’t bear the thought of him talking to you, kissing you, making love to you. So I organised that accident.’

She lifted her brows, trying to hide the warmth of joy his words caused. ‘You’re a devious man.’

Rafiq’s voice hardened. ‘But even though I knew he would turn feral when he realised things were going down, I didn’t expect him to steal the helicopter and force the pilot at gunpoint to fly to the castle.’

‘I see,’ she said, nodding, then frowned. ‘What happened to the pilot?’

‘He was shot.’

Lexie flinched, and he finished with lethal determination, ‘That was why I told my men to shoot to kill.’

‘Yes,’ she said sombrely. ‘When you said that his death was too quick and clean, I agreed, but I understand even better why you felt that way.’

‘I’m glad,’ he said quietly. ‘Now, as I have told you everything, will you please marry me and make me happy?’

Horrified, Lexie felt tears glaze her eyes. ‘I wish I could, but I have something to tell you. It’s about my father—you don’t know who he was.’

‘Of course I do,’ he said coolly, his frown easing.

She met his eyes, green and steady and direct, then gave a pale imitation of a smile. ‘Yes, of course you do. But have you thought things through? If we marry everyone on Moraze will discover that my father was a monster. You didn’t want Hani’s reputation sullied.’

‘Let them say what they want to say. It will not affect us,’ he said with the magnificent self-assurance that came from centuries of autocratic rule. In a voice that quietened all her fears, he said, ‘I don’t care about anyone who will judge you for what your father did—I care only about you. If you will marry me, Lexie, I will love and cherish you all our life together until I die. Neither of us can change our past, but together we can forge a future that will put the memories where they belong—behind us.’

Heart swelling with joy, she smiled at him. ‘Then let’s do that.’

It took all of Rafiq’s iron discipline to control himself. ‘I want you to learn to love Moraze as I do,’ he said. ‘All you have known of it has been a kind of imprisonment—but at home now the flame trees are flowering, and the air is languid and heavy with promise, and there are glories you have never seen waiting for you.’

‘I’ll love anywhere you are,’ she said, the words a vow.

His expression softened. ‘And you will be happy,’ he said in a deep, harsh voice she’d never heard before. ‘I swear it.’

She lifted a misty gaze to him. ‘So will you,’ she said, not holding back the tears as at last he took her into his arms.

‘All right,’ Princess Jacoba Considine said, frowning. ‘Twirl.’

Obediently Lexie twirled, the silk of her creamy-gold dress swirling around her in a gentle sussuration.

Jacoba inspected her with the unsparing scrutiny of a woman famed the world over for her fashion sense. ‘You look utterly, astoundingly gorgeous. Rafiq is going to faint when he sees you.’

To giggles from the two maids who had helped her into her wedding dress, Lexie said with a grin, ‘He’s not into fainting. I’ll settle for him being gobsmacked.’

The maids giggled again, and Jacoba glanced at the clock. ‘OK, time to get this show on the road,’ she said cheerfully. ‘We have exactly three hours before my son announces his desire for his next sustenance.’ She examined the Considine tiara. ‘I believe that thing weighs half a tonne, but it’s worth it.’

‘Anything is worth it for Rafiq,’ Lexie said quietly, and went out of the room to where Prince Marco, her brother-in-law and distant cousin, waited to escort her to her marriage ceremony.

Much later, in a pavilion overlooking a lagoon scattered with stars, she looked at her husband.

‘Come here,’ he commanded, holding out his hand as his eyes narrowed in the intent, penetrating gaze that always set her pulse drumming. ‘Have I told you how wonderful you looked today as you walked up towards me in the cathedral?’

She smiled shakily, heated anticipation building inside her. Since her arrival in Moraze they hadn’t made love, and the time spent away from each other had sharpened her hunger into something close to desperation.

‘Not until now,’ she said, walking to him over a floor strewn with the petals of tropical flowers. Their scent hung like a blessing in the warm, smooth air.

She cupped his face in her hands, saw the answering glint of passion in his eyes, and knew with rock-solid certainty that this was the start of a long and happy life together.

‘I love you,’ she said, resting her forehead on his chest, inhaling his beloved scent, taking simple comfort from his formidable strength and presence.

‘As I do you. With everything I am, everything I have, for eternity.’

He spoke the words like a vow; to her they were more precious than the magnificent fire-diamond jewellery he’d given her, more precious than anything else in her life.

Then Rafiq kissed her, and all thought of jewels vanished in the magical potency of that kiss, and the glorious promise of their future together in Moraze.

‘East of Zanzibar,’ she murmured when she could talk again. ‘When you told me Moraze got its name because it means east, I thought anything could happen east of Zanzibar—even something so wildly romantic as finding a soul mate. I didn’t really expect it to happen, though.’

He leant his cheek on the top of her head. ‘But it did. To both of us,’ he said in a voice dark with satisfaction, and together they walked hand in hand towards a future as bright and glittering as the fabled fire-diamonds of Lexie’s new country, the country that held her heart.